Mike Goston/Sketch

It's rather hard to believe, but you simply must believe me when I say that here in Gainesville there are a few living remnants of the fabled band wars-era homeboyhood, that kicking and screaming creative spirit which brought the world a lot of gritty, angry music about drinking, struggle, brotherhood, a deep love of the city, and drinking. also drinking.

It's true, though. Even in such a seriously disjointed music scene as the one here today, new forces are stretching their tender roots into the soil, filling the vacuum left by the previous generation. Dance music is back on a somewhat steady upward stroke in this city, and while it ain't what it used to be right now, it's going to be banging as hard as anyone can remember soon enough.

Mike Goston is a pristine example of how great sounds will always find a way to materialize from the ether in this odd little city. It just needs the appropriate vessel. A regular DJ at the saturday night Neon Liger parties under the name Sketch, Mike has managed to produce a fiendishly solid EP between bouts of Katamari Damacy, rave-hut misadventures, and other similar party-dependent diversions. The resulting sound is unpretentious, very original, and obscenely clever. Titled "Select/Start", the four track EP in full will be available for digital download or CD right on tax day, April 15. Highly recco'd, unless you're not 110% awesome.


Mike Goston - Put That Thang On 'Em (320)
Equally at home warming up the nice room vibes early in the evening or warming up your inner thighs at the 4am afterparty.


Mike Goston - Select/Start (320)
A choice heater with plenty of FM synths and enough reverb/delay to make Sonic Youth's genitals shrivel into their bodies until the song has been over for at least three minutes.

Manley and I were earlier discussing the distilled sound of these songs, and we both agreed on the prospects of great remixes coming from these (PROTIP - email him). But the true beauty of this release is that Mike will be hand-crafting the disc packaging himself in a limited number... this is something I personally cannot wait to see in my hands. For your own copy, get a hold of the man via email or his myspace.

See you in Miami.

- James C

Posted in: Gainesville,Mike Goston,Neon Liger,Sketch